Google X Borrows From MacOS

Those folks over at Google Labs have just enveiled their latest experiment playfully called Google X. Google X features a MacOS-style dockbar with icons that magically grow larger as you mouse over them and then shrink when you mouse out. The icons in this case are the various services provided by Google, such as Web search, image search, and Google Maps.

Once again, a pretty cool use of JavaScript to achieve this simple yet elegant effect. It looks like what they’re doing is using two images, a small and a large. When you mouse over, the image begins to grow in size and at some point the source is switched from the small image to the large image, which gives the impression that the image itself is growing.

As usual, that’s my two cents with a quick glance over the code. I’m sure someone out there will shortly dig really deep into the code and explain all the ins and outs. And as usual, I’ll look forward to reading it.

Disclaimer: Any viewpoints and opinions expressed in this article are those of Nicholas C. Zakas and do not, in any way, reflect those of my employer, my colleagues, Wrox Publishing, O'Reilly Publishing, or anyone else. I speak only for myself, not for them.